Jelly Roll has claimed he was treated “like a crim” at a luxury store in Sydney on Wednesday (November 5th).
The US singer is currently in Australia for his debut headline run of shows, alongside appearances at festivals including Harvest Rock, Sunburnt Country, and Strummingbird. Shows were initially announced in Melbourne, Sydney, and Auckland, but Aussie fans couldn’t get enough — a second Melbourne show was quickly added, as was a new Brisbane show.
He took a day off in Sydney following Tuesday night’s show at Qudos Bank Arena for a little shopping in the CBD, and claims he was quickly met with volatile behaviour from the staff at luxury store Louis Vuitton.
He shared his experience on social media, claiming they acted like “we were finna (sic) come in and rob that place”.
“I have never been looked at more like a crim,” he said in the Instagram story posted online. “Listen, the last time I was looked at like a criminal this bad … I was an actual criminal this bad.”
Jelly Roll, real name Jason Bradley DeFord, has a past that includes multiple arrests for drug possession, drug dealing, shoplifting, and aggravated robbery. He first went to jail when he was 14, and spent the next decade in and out of facilities. In an interview with CBS, he said he’s been arrested around 40 times.
The rapper and country star has since transformed his life, confronting his long history of substance addiction as his music career began taking off. He met his wife Bunnie Xo (Alyssa DeFord) in 2015, they married in 2016, and he credits her for being his biggest support.
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Since turning his life around, he has become a drug prevention activist, lobbied for anti-fentanyl legislation in the US, put hundreds of thousands of dollars into programs for incarcerated youth in his hometown of Nashville, and has given a second chance to felons who have served their time by hiring them to work for him.
Jelly Roll is playing his last Australian show today (November 6th) at Sunburnt Country festival in Townsville, before heading to New Zealand to play at The Outerfields at Western Springs in Auckland.
